


how deep is the ocean

by blackkat



Series: MerMay Drabbles [5]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Kiss, Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24190894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: The knock on the door comes just as the last of Kix's feathery blue fins ripples into being.
Relationships: CT-6116 | Kix/CT-4197 | Shank (Original Clone Character)
Series: MerMay Drabbles [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727092
Comments: 13
Kudos: 392





	how deep is the ocean

**Author's Note:**

> Shank belongs to the devious, dastardly Sol, I'm borrowing him with permission. 
> 
> For the prompt: Shank/Kix Roommates in med school AU where Kix is trying to hide he turns into a mer every time he's in the shower

The knock on the door comes just as the last of Kix's feathery blue fins ripples into being.

Kix freezes, heart suddenly in his throat, and wrenches around to cast a desperate look at the knob. It’s locked, blessedly, but—

The knocking turns into banging, and Shank says loudly from the other side, “Kix, is my phone in there?”

“ _Seas_ ,” Kix mutters, eyeing his roommate’s phone where it sits innocently on the edge of the bathroom counter. Then, almost despairingly, he casts a look over the impressive coils of cobalt-blue tail now filling their tiny bathroom, and reflects that he probably should have told Shank about his more oceanic attributes _before_ they’d been living in the same apartment for six months.

Still, there’s absolutely no way he’s opening the door right now, not for anything. Shank’s already powering through enough stress to drop an elephant, between med school and his job, and if Kix springs something like _I'm a merman, surprise_ on him, he’s probably going to have a stroke. Or stab someone. Kix is going to be a _doctor_. He can't be responsible for someone getting stabbed.

“I don’t see it,” he calls back, a _lie_ , and crosses his fingers underwater with a wince. It’s fine. The door is locked.

He ignores the fact that he’s seen Shank put his fist through _much_ thicker material than their flimsy bathroom door.

There's a pause, and then Shank says, “Just let me in already, I _know_ I left it in there.”

Kix splutters. “Shank!” he protests. “I'm not decent!”

“What, morally? I figured _that_ out when told Jesse that his exam stress was the sign of an approaching heart attack from drinking too much.” Shank rattles the knob, impatient, and Kix winces. “Come on, Kix, I don’t care if I see your dick.”

“Maybe _I_ care if you see my dick,” Kix mutters, almost under the water, but the _I want to pin you to a wall and kiss you until you can't form words_ confession would probably go over about as well as the _I'm half fish and shift in the shower_ confession. Which is to say, not at all.

“What?” There's a sound of annoyance, another rattle. “ _Kix_ , come on, I'm waiting for a call about my residency, and you take _forever_ in the shower.”

“You would too if you had to dry off completely before you could walk,” Kix mutters, but hauls himself up into the edge of the tub with a groan. It’s going to take him at _least_ twenty minutes to scrub his scales dry enough that he can shift back, but—

The door gives another rattle, and then a _click_ , and Kix's heart plummets into his fins as alarm bolts through his veins.

“I'm coming in,” Shank says, the door already creaking open, and Kix gives the tiny window with the one houseplant they’ve managed to keep alive a wild look. He can probably fit through it. Maybe. If he _shoves_.

“Shank, get _out_ —” he snaps, and there's too much tail to hide, no way he can stuff himself behind the toilet or stay out of sight. His heartbeat is three times what it should be, and he grabs the towel on the toilet tank like that’s going to do _anything_ to hide him—

“Oh, come on,” Shank gripes, “it’ll take me ten seconds to find it, your modesty is safe…with…me…”

Kix winces. As Shank’s voice trails off, he glances up to find Shank frozen in the doorway, lockpicks that he definitely shouldn’t have dangling from one hand. His eyes are wide, curls already starting to droop from the heavy steam in the bathroom, and Kix winces. Maybe, if he’d made the water a little hotter, gotten a little more steam going—

“Kix?” Shank manages, strangled.

“Get your phone and get out,” Kix says, because Shank drinks way too much coffee and sleeps way too little. Maybe they can write this off as a hallucination and ignore the half-fish in the room for the rest of med school. “You're letting all the hot air out.”

Shank looks from Kix to the door, then shuts it.

He shuts it with himself _still inside the bathroom_. That isn't what Kix was aiming for at all, and he groans.

“ _Shank_ ,” he says indignantly, but the edge of an order that usually makes Shank roll his eyes and grumble but obey doesn’t seem to have any effect as Shank’s eyes travel up the loops of Kix's tail. Slowly, gradually, his gaze slides up over Kix's hips, across his stomach and the curl of lighter scales there, then up his chest, and Kix feels a wash of heat that floods his face and the pit of his stomach in equal measure. He can't move, though, feels frozen under Shank’s sharp eyes, and—

“Don’t look now,” Shank say at last, mouth twitching, “but I think you have fins.”

Kix rolls his eyes, the tension deflating as if it were a balloon Shank just gleefully stabbed. His stomach settles, and he says, “Did you _pick_ the _lock_? I thought we agreed that locked doors meant _go away_ , Shank.”

“Kix, you’re the only person I've ever met who takes two-hour showers,” Shank says, and sweeps another long, lingering look over Kix, from his pointed ears to the tip of his curling fins. “Though I guess you have a decent excuse.”

“If you're done staring, get out,” Kix says, not deigning to answer that, or acknowledge the fluttering in the pit of his stomach. His heart is still racing, and all he wants to do is flop back into the water and submerge himself until his face doesn’t feel like it’s on fire.

Instead of getting out, Shank gives him the lazy, crooked smirk that means nothing but trouble and steps _closer_. “Not quite yet,” he says, and leans over Kix, close enough that Kix can see water droplets beading across his curls from the steam. He reaches out, and his fingertips drag right over the point where scales scatter into brown skin. It makes Kix startle, a high, almost ragged sound breaking from his throat, and he claps his hand over his mouth automatically.

“ _Shank_ ,” he protests.

Shank raises an eyebrow at him, and the light in his eyes is both fascinated and wicked, a combination that does nothing to slow the pace of Kix's heart. “Kix,” he says. “You have a _tail_. What the hell?”

“All mermen have tails,” Kix says with dignity, though it’s ruined by the way his breath catches hard in his throat when Shank presses a hand flat against his tail and drags a long, slow stroke down. It makes Kix shiver, and he reaches up automatically, grabs Shank by the collar of his sweatshirt and _yanks_.

With a yelp, Shank overbalances, toppling right into Kix. Kix lets himself fall back, lets _them_ fall back right into the water, and he twists, pins Shank against the enamel with a hard push and curls on top of him, tail coiling over his legs. Shank stares up at him, eyes wide, curls sticking to his cheeks, and Kix leans in until their noses are practically touching.

“ _Shank_ ,” he says, pointed. “I have a strict policy about groping.”

Shank swallows visibly. “Yeah?” he asks, a little rough. “And what’s that, exactly?”

“If you're doing it, you’d better mean it,” Kix tells him, and Shank smirks. It’s _unfairly_ attractive.

“So,” he says, faux-thoughtful. “I know I said I didn’t care about your dick, but if you're half fish, does that mean you have a—mmph!”

After all the groping, Kix figures shutting him up with a kiss is probably perfectly fair. And it’s satisfying as all hell, too.


End file.
